Document package complete before January 1... who's with me?

[JGreene]

So maybe I'm the only one who hasn't been good at doing this part of the prep.  I seriously doubt it.

My goal is to have a document package assembled prior to the new year.  This means physical copies, safely stored as well as digital copies stored as well.

I figured if we have a few people doing this at once, we'll get some ideas as to the how's and where's and also a group to keep us all on track to finish it by this goal.

What brought this on was my son.  He and his wife are college students living off campus.  There was a fire in their apartment building.  Fortunately he has renter's insurance.  We couldn't remember with whom!  Fortunately we don't deal with many and where able to track it down.  If you don't have renter's insurance... GET IT!  His is only about $90 a year.

WHAT TO SAVE:
Insurance policies - Home, Auto, Life (good time to look up all those pariferal life insurance policies given out by various organizations as part of their membership, AAA, NRA, work, spouses work, credit union)
Deed to the home
Title to car, boat, RV etc
Financial institutions - latest statement (?) or coded account numbers and contact info
Contacts - phone numbers (home work cell), physical addresses, email addresses

I'll probably go through the filing cabinet and see what else may be of use.  I plan on saving the info to a 'special' thumb drive as well as an online source.  In any event, I'll create a directory locally to save all the info to and then sync that with the external storage locations.

[Mike123]

You are not the only one. Thanks for the challenge.
Mike

[idelphic]

I have been working on this the last few weeks (months)...  Using Open Office base to create a database that will cover all this, including the ability of attaching photos. 

Might want to also include:

Credit card info (front / back image)
Drivers Lic (front / back image)
Medical Insurance Card (front / back image)
Birth Cert
Marriage / Divorce Info
Home inventory with photos (include photo of SN / Model Plate)


Be careful about using any type of online source as it could be hack and cracked.

[MightyRunt]

Having had a a robbery many years ago, I'd also include gun serial numbers in your packet.

[Bennington1776]

I keep my original SS card, birth certificate, stock certificates and copies of my credit cards, debit card, driver license, insurance card, contents of my wallet, insurance policies, vehicle title, list of allergies, important contact numbers/addresses and pictures and video of the way the inside and outside of my home and vehicles look like in a safety deposit box at the bank five miles from my home.  I also have all of these items scanned in an encrypted file on my computer and printed copies in a safe and accessible place outside of the house.  Plan A, B and C.  I also have an expired driver license in my BOB.

[Herbalpagan]

ecellent idea! We did this a couple of years ago, but I've since made new purchases like guns and want the numbers in there as well as some thumb drives with other info on them I'd hate to loose.
If you have passports, put them in there also.

[Nate]

This is something I sort of started a few years ago shortly after I started listening to TSP.  Life got busier with work demands and getting married.  Well, your post has re-inspired me to complete this task.  My wife mentioned something along these lines a few weeks ago.  She said, God forbid something happens to you, can you write down all the passwords to our online accounts, like email, bank credit cards and the like?  This was good since I manage all of those things.  All the passwords were in my head. 

So, starting next week since I have a long vacation coming, I will start this process.  I might use some of the paperwork provided as a benefit in the MSB!!

[Don Tango]

I started this about a year back and I have stalled. This has re-inspired me to get moving and finish our documentation and communication packages. I read some ideas for additional items I need to add. I have also challenged family members and my military buddies, from a years back, to join me.

Thank you for the kick in the backside.

Timmo

[JGreene]

Good to hear!


How about a copy of your latest utility bill with your account number and a contact number for the utility.

I thought I saw a sticky on here somewhere about creating a secure thumb drive.  Ok, it won't be CIA secure, but as long as its secure against a Linux level hacker it should be good. 

I'm thinking that physical copies of policies, accounts etc should be kept secure, the information could be easily kept on a piece of paper with some kind of code.  A page of numbers isn't going to mean much to someone else, however, they could Google a  phone number and probably come up with the source.

[Bennington1776]

Such great information being added.

I have included hard copies of all of my bill account numbers and service provider telephone numbers.  Now if I can only find the safety deposit keys. 

[MilSpecIA]

I started pulling all this together about 4 months ago and am about 80% complete. When I'm done scanning the originals, binding a master version in document protectors, and backing it up to thumb drive this will have about everything essential that I can think of. This is from my table of contents;

Article I.   Table of Contents
Documents
•   Personal Cards
•   Individual Birth Certificates
•   Passport Information
•   Marriage License
•   Individual Wills
•   Property Titles
•   Insurance Policies
•   CCW Permit Documentation
•   Military documents
•   Diplomas and transcripts
•   Pet vaccine records
•   Other important documents related to employment and/or a family business

Property
•   Color photos of your house and each room in the house
•   High value items list with photos
•   Firearms Information
•   Appraisals

Medical
•   Doctors Information
•   Health Insurance Documents
•   Medical histories of each family member?
•   Immunization Documents
•   A list of current prescriptions, dosage, and pharmacy contact information
•   A list of blood types for each family member

Contact Information
•   Personal & Family Contact Tree Information with Photos

Departure
•   Should you stay or go?
•   Where we will go
•   A list of items to take with you
•   How to turn off the water to the house
•   How to turn off the electricity

As I said I've been working on this in my spare time but unfortunately that is hard to come by these days.  If anyone gets theirs done before the New Year not only will I be envious but I'd be interested to know what other elements they have in theirs.

[SteveandTracyinKY]

Started on this a while back, and needed some motivation to finish. Thanks for the challenge! On to the new year!!

NATE: What documentation from MSB are you referring to?

[Roknrandy]

I'll be updating mine

[eph2]

If we've got plenty of room on a thumb drive....warranties, manufacturer model numbers and contact info for important equipment (radios, generators,etc.), replacement part numbers, list of shortwave emergency numbers  http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/03/radio_communications_for_situa.html

[idelphic]

Started on this a while back, and needed some motivation to finish. Thanks for the challenge! On to the new year!!

NATE: What documentation from MSB are you referring to?

As a MSB Member - there is a downloadable PDF from the James T. Stephens that is a good template to use.

[Amator]

This will be a good project for me to do over the holidays as well.  Count me in!

[climberaxe]

I don't think I will have a complete package by 01 Jan 2011, but you have inspired me to get started.  I saw your proposed Contents List down the thread - very good starting point!!!

[Nate]

NATE: What documentation from MSB are you referring to?

As a MSB Member - there is a downloadable PDF from the James T. Stephens that is a good template to use.

Yep, this is the one I was referring to.  I got a start on my package today.  I finally got around to filing bank statements, investment statements, yadda yadda that I have not filed for the last few months.  Now I have a starting point with the most recent statements.  Tomorrow I will begin assembling the package as well as backing up my HD's and taking an inventory of all medical supplies and meds that I have in the house.  Should be another busy day!  Gotta love vacation time from work!!

[Wimary]

I'm also working on putting together my documents...I found this free printable template online for Firearms Documentation, seems to serve the purpose, of course we will have pictures as well.  One thing I thought was neat is the place at the bottom that let's your family know who you would like to have the gun if you should die.  Here's the link...

http://www.memorableplaces.com/m1garand/afirearmrecordsheet.html

[idelphic]

There is no way I'll be getting mine done anytime soon..  I'm making mine based on a database project - Everything will be done as a report...  Documents, Information, Vendors, Contacts, Inventory, etc will be in it. 

Doc and I have been looking at it over the last few weeks (as time permits) using Open Office Base.  Not everyone has MS Access,.. but OO is free, so makes sense.  I found that MS Access could have images,.. and that led to Doc figuring out the same thing with OO..

[Amator]

Very interesting.  Are there any good tutorials for OO Base you can recommend?  I've never done any database work, but I've always wanted to dip my toes in.

[idelphic]

There may be,.. I can't say for certain,..  I first started out with Access since I have a bit of information on that,..  THen it was mentioned to me that really a db is an advanced type of spread sheet.

Start with Excel, each table is a work sheet, and you can import into OO or Access.

[SteveandTracyinKY]

Printed out the PDF of the MSB and we started filling it out tonight...OMG there is SO freakin much information that needs to go in there. I'll be a month just pulling out numbers and names from the file boxes.

[Docwatmo]

Idelphic is doing most of the work, I'm just playing in my freetime with the software (Free time? What the hell is that? LOL).

I also just got my visual studio 2010 installed, havn't programed in a LONG time but I want to take what we've been looking at and make a self running EXE that can run off a usb stick (No Open Office required).   Gonna take some work.  Building a basic data storage app to do this is fairly easy, the hard part is making it flexible enough that the user can add/remove fields/tables and modify reports etc.  I'm wondering if the new XML tools could make that easier, but that could be version 2.0 or 12.6 

Thanks Idelphic for dooing all the real work, and keeping on poking me with the stick,  Otherwise I would probably never stay on task 

[Amator]

There may be,.. I can't say for certain,..  I first started out with Access since I have a bit of information on that,..  THen it was mentioned to me that really a db is an advanced type of spread sheet.

Start with Excel, each table is a work sheet, and you can import into OO or Access.

Excel I am very comfortable in.  I work in accounting so I'm used to lookups, formulas, and pivot tables.  I've made a macro or two in the past, but I'm not really comfortable with that yet, and I've never messed around with any of the VB stuff in Excel. 

I actually have a spreadsheet already with worksheets for the various categories of data I'd want in a Document Package.  What should I do after I have everything in Excel and want to import that into a database? 

Thanks for your help!

[JGreene]

Idelphic is doing most of the work, I'm just playing in my freetime with the software (Free time? What the hell is that? LOL).

I also just got my visual studio 2010 installed, havn't programed in a LONG time but I want to take what we've been looking at and make a self running EXE that can run off a usb stick (No Open Office required).   Gonna take some work.  Building a basic data storage app to do this is fairly easy, the hard part is making it flexible enough that the user can add/remove fields/tables and modify reports etc.  I'm wondering if the new XML tools could make that easier, but that could be version 2.0 or 12.6 

Thanks Idelphic for dooing all the real work, and keeping on poking me with the stick,  Otherwise I would probably never stay on task 

Let me know how you're doing.  I'm working on a similar effort using C# and XML.

[luke]

Having had a a robbery many years ago, I'd also include gun serial numbers in your packet.

A very good idea, and I will be doing this within the week as one of my friends just had a couple firearms stolen from his house.

...

I like the idea of finishing a document package by Jan 1, but I have a lot of other paperwork to deal with by the end of the year as well...I'm going to try, though. My goal is to have a complete package done one month after my 2010 tax returns are prepared and at least basic info by Jan 1.

ETA: I also want to purchase an additional hard drive (maybe 2) to back up my data onto so that I can store the backups away from my computer.   And for everyone discussing creating a database or some other software solution, in my opinion the first step is to gather the most important data and just write it down somewhere, even if it is handwritten. THEN develop the fancy methods of keeping track of everything, and it sounds like there are some pretty cool projects that people here are working on.

[JGreene]

A very good idea, and I will be doing this within the week as one of my friends just had a couple firearms stolen from his house.

...

...

ETA: I also want to purchase an additional hard drive (maybe 2) to back up my data onto so that I can store the backups away from my computer.   And for everyone discussing creating a database or some other software solution, in my opinion the first step is to gather the most important data and just write it down somewhere, even if it is handwritten. THEN develop the fancy methods of keeping track of everything, and it sounds like there are some pretty cool projects that people here are working on.

I'm still collecting and scanning.   I bought two 1T network drives from eCost for about $65  a few weeks ago.  Buffalo brand.  So far its working well.  The second was for someone else.  SyncBack runs once a day to backup everything to another room/floor of the house.

[idelphic]

I'm still collecting and scanning.   I bought two 1T network drives from eCost for about $65  a few weeks ago.  Buffalo brand.  So far its working well.  The second was for someone else.  SyncBack runs once a day to backup everything to another room/floor of the house.

Interesting site Ray - While most of what I saw in the NAS arena was re-manufactured / re-certified the prices seemed decent.

Speaking of NAS (like this one: http://www.ecost.com/prod/Storage/External+Storage/Hard+Drives/NAS+HDD/Buffalo+2TB+LinkStation+Pro+Duo+NAS+w+RAID+Storage+Server+-+LS-W20TGLR1/43006058.aspx?navid=155442295 It would be interesting to find someone to hack the OS in it to create a MESH networked system between sites,..  This could be a fun project for someone..crack and hack the OS to have the sync / backup software internal, as well as a SSH to the other NAS systems..  Not just a single station RAID 1 but a MESH Network of RAID 1 systems,..  Stand alone - no computer needed.

[luke]

I'm still collecting and scanning.   I bought two 1T network drives from eCost for about $65  a few weeks ago.  Buffalo brand.  So far its working well.  The second was for someone else.  SyncBack runs once a day to backup everything to another room/floor of the house.

I purchased a 2T USB 3.0 Seagate drive from Best Buy and it seems to be working out ok. I'm not sure if I will purchase the premium software that has a 30-day trial and encryption or find my own backup program with encryption.

BTW Best Buy price matched it for me when I took it back to return it and purchase it at another store, handing me the $40 or $50 in cash right there! (It was $120 at Walmart.com.)

I'm probably going to pick up another drive before the new year for my business (tax deduction) so that I can store one off-site, although I like the network drive idea for an upgrade in the future.